Co Wash Conditioner? What The Heck Is That?

 

Hi guys.. so heres a latest craze in the cosmetic haircare world; Co Wash Conditioner. I didnt even know what it was until a year ago when i was researching about my upcoming Haircare Business Formulation Course (not gona release it soon coz i cant get myself to complete it. Its a huge topic this haircare and everytime i feel like im ready; new info comes in. Im paralysed with information!)

So anyways; whats co wash? Lets all go back to the basic of hair care; the shampoo.

As you know; some people shampoo their hair daily and some every alternate days. Now when we do wash our hair; all these while i think most dont even realise they have been using the shampoo ‘wrongly’. (Read here if you have been losing hair. It may be because of this.)

Did you know that the part you were suppose to shampoo is the scalp? And not the hair? However; since most shampoo’s opening is a big hole where you have to pour it into the palm then shampoo your ‘scalp’, one usually ends up shampooing the whole hair.

So what happens then? Well; your scalp is ‘benda hidup’. Its a skin and therefore if you wash your hair with shampoo; it usually has surfactants like sodium laureth sulphate, sodium lauryl sulphate and so on. What these surfactant does is its like a magnet that attaches to the dirt on your skin (scalp) and when you rinse; you will remove the dirt. Which is perfect right?

However; we are now mostly indoor and we dont have that much of ‘dirt’ to remove. So what happens then is the Surfactant will now have to attach to something else; and usually that would be our natural oils on the scalp.

When this happens; our skin will get squeaky clean for a while. If its on our face; we can usually feel this where our skin will feel like its been pulled. But since its on the scalp we cant really feel it.

The only thing u can feel is at the end of the day; you will get oily ‘hair’. The reason this happens is because our skin is signaled that its dry, and so it produces more ‘oil’ to compensate with the dryness. 

But what do we do? We end up washing our hair again and the whole cycle happens again.

But that is for scalp. When the shampoo touches the hair; it does the same thing. The only difference is; hair is not ‘alive’. So even if its dry; it cant reproduce more oil. So the more shampoo we put the dryer the hair gets.

The only way to compensate with the dryness is by manually adding moisture; which in this case would be putting on conditioner and mask with occasional oil.

So what is co wash? 

Co wash is a cleanser made using oils and emulsifiers instead of soaps/surfactants. 

The idea is since its ‘conditioner’ like but with emulsifiers; it will also remove dirt by emulsifying the dirt. But if there is nothing for it to trap; it wont remove the natural oil. So your hair will continue being shiny instead of dull.

Now why cant we co wash all the time?

Thats because co wash conditioners doesn’t clean that well as well as shampoo. You wouldn’t want to just use lotion to your skin without soaping ur skin right? Sure it moisturizes; but we need cleaning too:) 

For the same reason; if we just use co wash on hair; it would cause build up over time. Now we don’t want that! Hence its also better to avoid the scalp when doing co washing. 

So how do we incorporate co wash? 

Easy: the days we are shampooing our hair; use creamy thicker conditioner/ mask to re-moisturize the hair

The days you don’t use shampoo: just co wash.

How to Use Co Wash Conditioner?

Rinse hair, apply on hair, rinse. Just like a shampoo.

Do You Need A Co Wash Conditioner?

It depends on your hair. If you have dry, curly, frizzy or any hair thats a little not straight; then yes you will benefit from the co washing.

If you have straight rebonded hair; then no you don need it. Just rinsing your hair will do.

Thank you

Nisha